WBC/WBO/Ring Magazine Junior Lightweight Championship
Last night’s Top Rank/ESPN Main Event between former WBC/WBO/Ring Magazine Junior Lightweight Champion Shakur Stevenson (19-0, 9 Kos) and Robsen Conceicao (17-2, 8 Kos) was simply a showcase type of an event for the homegrown combatant Shakur at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.
Due to Shakur missing weight for the contested bout of 130 pounds, Shakur was stripped of his WBC/WBO/Ring Magazine Junior Lightweight Championship belts and was unable to defend them as Champion.
That being said, the bout continued as planned and Shakur proceeded to put on a hell of a performance in front of his hometown fans by easily dismantling his opponent like it was a sparring session.
No disrespect to Robson, who is a highly decorated Olympian and a very worthy opponent for Shakur, fell miserably short in his second attempt at a potential title opportunity.
What looked good on paper turned out to be a mismatch from start to finish. Robson simply did not have the right “game plan” to take such a skillful combatant like Shakur.
Shakur’s surprising approach was to walk down and go through Robson’s offense with ease. Shakur hardly moved around the ring as he usually does and instead stood his ground going toe to toe administering non- contested punches to his opponent at will. That approach took Conceicao by surprise and left him bewildered and confused throughout the entire bout.
Whatever Conceicao did manage to land on Shakur had absolutely no effect whatsoever in deterring the Champ from having his way inside that squared circle. Shakur’s dominance from start to finish was impressive. Although Shakur was unable to stop Conceicao within the 12-round bout, his total dominance of his opponent could not be denied. Shakur was simply too big, too strong, too savvy inside that squared circle.
The Judges for the night had absolutely no trouble in scoring this bout 119-108, 118-108 and 117-109 unanimously for Shakur Stevenson.
Another easy night for the Kid – now on to new challenges at the 135-Pound Division.
Blaze